HORNCHURCH 2 EAST GRINSTEAD 1

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Saturday 22-September-2018 - FA Cup

HORNCHURCH 2  EAST GRINSTEAD 1

 

HFC -, Chafer, Bentley, Porter, Clark, Cooper, Warner (Boakye-Yiadom 88), Livings (Hursit 80), Spence, Marks (McKenzie 85), Purcell, Coker.

Unused subs: Fairweather-Johnson, Hogan, Saunders, Collis

 

EG - Ceesay, Boulding, Miller-Neave, Wilson, Emptage, Johnson, Mazzone, Yao (Conway 71), Landais, Smith, Mongoy]

Subs - Sargent, Cooney, Bray, Everitt, Taylor

 

Officials -  Michael Robertsonb-Fant with Dominic Wynter and John Hyde

 

Scorers - Purcell 46 (H) - Lqndais 50 (EG) - Marks 57 (H)

Bookings - Cooper 45+2 (H) - Johnson 84 ((EG) OFF - Mongoy 87 (EG)

Attendance 227

Duration 47.00 + 50.00

 

HORNCHURCH 2  EAST GRINSTEAD 1

 

It was a wet and miserable afternoon, and at times, the football matched the weather as Hornchurch struggled against their visitors from a lower division, who however played a lot better than their league standing indicated.

 

Hornchurch created plenty of openings but were unable to turn their first half superiority into goals, whilst at times in the second half it seemed that their slender lead might not be enough to take them into the next round.

 

The first chance of the match fell to Jordan Clark, after a Nathan Livings free kick was headed on by Sean Marks, but the shot was deflected for a corner.

 

Goalkeeper Sheikh Ceesay was fortunate when he mistimed a centre from Jay Porter, and  Brad Warner’s shot was turned around the post by a defender.

 

East Grinstead only rarely threatened in the first half, their first opening coming from a short corner to Ryan Johnson that ended with the ball eluding everyone as it came across.

 

Hornchurch came back strongly, with Marks finding Warner, but his shot was comfortably saved by Ceesay.

 

George Purcell fired over from thirty yards with a shot on the turn, and back at the other end Callum Chafer saved a poorly struck shot by Orlando Smith.

 

Purcell went close again when he moved on to Jay Porter’s cross, and Ceesay did well to hold a hard drive by Lewwis Spence.

 

Hornchurch almost took the lead on the half hour when Porter and Marks linked up to give Purcell a shooting chance, the ball beating Ceesay only to be cleared off the line.

 

Four minutes from the interval Ceesay saved from Marks, who had moved on to a Nathan Livings free kick.

 

One minute into the second half, a long throw from Alex Bentley found its way to George Purcell, who turned and volleyed the ball home.

 

Five minutes later East Grinstead were back on level terms, when George Landais moved in from the left and neatly curled his shot around Chafer and into the net.

 

Hornchurch regained the lead when another long Bentley throw was played out to Purcell on the elft. He cut inside and pulled the ball back across goal, for Sean Marks to finish off from close range.

 

East Grinstead had difficulty in defending the long throws from Bentley, and they almost conceded another goal when his throw reached Marks, whose shot was tipped over by Ceesay.

 

A Tobi Coker shot landed on the roof of the net, and a Spence close range shot was cleared off the line.

 

East Grinstead almost drew level when a Porter clearance hit Purcell and rebounded to Jack Conway, but an alert Chafer came quickly out to save.

 

Ryan Johnson was then shown a red card for a late challenge on Sean Marks, the referee conferring with his linesman before making his decision.

 

Nani Boakye-Yiadom almost scored with his first touch of the ball, and Hornchurch had little difficulty in playing out the remaining few minutes, as the rain continued to fall steadily.